Facilitated by Julia Jardine

Have you ever thought of nature as God’s first love letter to us? The Bible tells us that long before Scripture was written - and to this day - God speaks to us through his creation and creation speaks to us of God!

How can we connect with God outdoors? How can nature talk to us of God? And how might this reshape the way we see and treat the natural world?

Come and explore these questions with us through story-telling, simple outdoor field work, and hands-on creative nature art, as together we learn to listen, wonder, and care for God’s world.

Facilitated by Karina Kreminski

Good things emerge from the edges. Edges are liminal spaces where one thing ends and another begins. It takes courage to stay at the edge. It’s risky. It’s a place of messiness and transformation. But it’s when we are playing at the edges that we experience innovation, creativity and impact. The edge entices us to go deeper. As we hear voices from the edges and think about issues from the margins, our society flourishes. ‘Centre’ or core thinking is prevalent in our society but when we listen to voices calling out from the edges, we learn about important issues our world might be ignoring. Do you have a message to speak out but feel constrained by "the powers that be" ? This workshop will explore the core/edge dynamic and will encourage "Edge-Walkers" today who walk the tension between what is and what will be.

Facilitated by Jono Ingrim + Lee Palumbo

An invitation to slow down, step outside, and notice the sacred in the natural world. This contemplative workshop will take you on a guided, contemplative experience of what Celtic spirituality calls “thin spaces”.

Facilitated by Craig Farrell

Hear honest stories of working with people in the margins - the good, bad, and the ugly. Hear from the Richmond Salvos team who are seeking to be light and hope in the inner Melbourne suburb of North Richmond. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to explore together the challenges of ministry in the margins, the beauty and complexity of working in a team, the importance of caring for self as well as others, and the practice of contemplative spirituality in often chaotic spaces.

Facilitated by Naomi Chua

Safe spaces have the power to transform us—not through instruction, but through listening. In this interactive workshop, participants will explore how listening to refugee stories can become an act of justice, mercy, and solidarity. Refugee narratives of displacement, loss, resilience, and hope invite us into lived realities that statistics and headlines can never fully capture, challenging assumptions and deepening empathy. Participants will have the opportunity to listen to a person with lived experience of being a refugee share their story, followed by guided reflection and discussion. Together, we will consider how safe spaces offer dignity and agency to refugees, and how listening calls us to reflect on privilege, justice, and our responsibilities in the margins. This session will invite participants to think about how storytelling can reshape relationships, build cross-cultural understanding, and inspire compassionate action in their communities.

Facilitated by Steff Fenton

Steff Fenton (they/them) is a trans Christian writer, speaker, and trainer with a mission to flip the harmful scripts on trans and gender diverse people in the name of Christian faith. Steff leads peer support groups for trans and queer people of faith, as well as training and resources for churches, chaplains, parents, and communities to affirm trans people with confidence and care. Steff is the author of the newly published book, "Gender Expansive Faith: How Trans Lives are Illuminating the Divine, Transforming Feminism and Ending Christian Patriarchy". Steff has been a pastor and chaplain, the manager of a state-wide LGBTIQA+ training and consulting service, as well as the Director of a national LGBTIQA+ peer phone line service. They're also a wedding celebrant and have aspirations to adopt a cute dog one day soon.

Facilitated by Jane Hope

Jane Hope has lived at Gembrook Retreat for 20 years and is a Quaker who seeks to follow the radical life of Christ. She works as a Spiritual Director, Retreat Guide, Mentor and facilitator of The Work That Reconnects under the banner of Rewilding Christianity, and describes her spiritual life as a wild adventure story that just keeps getting wilder.

After spending two years in Brazil, learning from Indigenous communities as well as local Brazilian families, she has spent the last 20 years committed to building residential communities in Australia. She helped begin the Indigenous Hospitality House in 2001 and was a resident there for 3 years, before moving to Gembrook Retreat.

She has found that her spiritual life has deepened by developing a greater connection to land, extended periods of contemplation and living a daily life of prayer and work. As her spiritual life continues to deepen everyday she is drawn to share and explore the spiritual life with others.

Facilitated by Robyn Whitaker

Gathering research, stories and messages heard from The Wesley Centre’s recent Gendered Violence Conference (Feb 2026), Robyn will take some time to share some key learnings.
The conference in February looked at: “How do religion, theology, and culture contribute to—or help combat—gendered violence? Join The Wesley Centre’s inaugural interdisciplinary conference to investigate the intersections of theology, biblical interpretation, culture, sexism, colonialism, and justice. Together, we’ll ask hard questions about gendered violence and explore resources for healing, inclusion, and change.”

Facilitated by Greg Hewson

Meet Greg Hewson, the Australian Programs Director at Tearfund, who has spent more than twenty five years walking alongside the Australian church to cultivate biblically shaped responses to poverty and justice. Greg leads a national team dedicated to prayer, discipleship, and advocacy, helping Christians live out their faith in ways that reflect a deep commitment to justice and mercy in the margins.

With a heart for International and First People's programs, Greg works in partnership with volunteers and hundreds of churches to achieve a shared mission of empowerment and education. His work is rooted in the belief that love obligates justice, and he is passionate about challenging and equipping others to find the way of peace through active engagement and stewardship. Whether he is facilitating church engagement or raising vital funds, Greg remains focused on empowering Australian Christians to lead lives of impactful discipleship.

Facilitated by Di Duursma and Michael Wood

Di Duursma has played for a long time at the intersection of spiritual formation, restorative practice and mission at the beautiful broken edges of community. She calls Northern Victoria home base where her husband and family are but finds many places home. For the last few decades she has been involved in the ministry of God’s Squad CMC, is the director of Zac’s Place Wangaratta, works with at-risk youth and those experiencing homelessness and has been Project Coordinator for the Wang Night Shelter since its beginning in 2019 through Stableone’s Network of Shelters. Her Masters in Intercultural Ministry completed in 2025 explored marginalised communities in many places. She believes in having deep roots locally and a long reach globally and that sometimes a song and a story are all that is needed to tip the axis of humanity towards restoration.

Micael Wood. I support teams, groups, organisations, and individuals to cocreate spirited spaces to do the things they care deeply about. My approach is shaped by the following principles:

- Working collaboratively with clients and partners.

- Trusting that insight and creativity is something that emerges from healthy relationships and the fostering of safe spaces for respectful conversation.
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- Recognizing that conflict in inevitable in groups and that this can be a source of creatively and growth when handled well.
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- Creating conditions for self-organisation leads to enjoyable workplaces and high performance in complex systems (which is just about everything these days).

- Time, deep listening, and patient waiting for the emergence of wisdom is never wasted.

My preference for the co-creative process of working with people rather than doing things to them or for them, is implicitly theologically shaped and informed by expertise in a range of dialogic frameworks and processes including Leadership Coaching, Appreciative Inquiry, Listening Circles, Open Space Technology, and Restorative Practice Conferencing. I have facilitated hundreds of meetings for groups ranging in size from 6 - 450 people, in tertiary education, private companies, public health, churches, NFP and NGOs.

After early careers in the shipping and banking industries, I now work in both churches, and nonchurch contexts, as a priest, leadership coach, and professional facilitator.

I am married and father to two adult daughters. My first book, "Practicing Peace: Theology, Contemplation, and Action" was published in 2022 (shortlisted in the Australian Christian Book of the Year Awards, 2023).
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* Professional Member Resolution Institute
* Member Australian Association for Restorative Justice
* ICF Professional Certified Coach (current)
* Bachelor of Divinity (Murdoch University)
* Bachelor of Business (Victoria University)
* Diploma Applied Science (Australian Maritime College).​​​​

Facilitated by Simon Reeves and guests

Since its inception, SURRENDER has been more than a conference; it has been a disruptive call for followers of Jesus to move toward the margins. But how did we get here, and where is the Spirit nudging us now? In this landmark roundtable session, we bring together the "living history" of the movement—founding members, past and current directors, board members, and long-term partners—to peel back the layers of our shared journey. This is not merely a trip down memory lane; it is a critical excavation of our identity and a collective prophetic discernment of our future.

This roundtable will host a conversation that explores:

The Genesis: Why was SURRENDER created? We revisit the "holy discontent" and the original heartbeat—a hunger for a faith that is deeply communal, justice-oriented, and centered on the poor.

The Iterations: From grassroots gatherings to a national catalyst for social change, we will track the various seasons of the movement and how it has evolved to meet the moment.

The Landscape of Justice: An honest appraisal of our impact on the Australian Christian social justice scene. We’ll discuss where we have seen fruit and where the soil has been hardest to till.

The Unfolding Future: In a post-Christendom, climate-anxious, and divided world, what does "Surrender as a movement" look like today?

The roundtable is open to all but will include contributions from

Founding Members: On the radical roots of the movement.

Past & Current Team members: On leading through changing cultural tides.

Key Partners: On walking alongside SURRENDER in the long journey toward reconciliation and justice.

Whether you have been part of the SURRENDER family since 2003 or this is your very first festival, you are invited to pull up a chair. Come for the stories, stay for the provocative dialogue, and help us imagine the next chapter of radical discipleship in Australia.

Facilitated by Jess Collins

Jess Collins believes the biggest crisis in global Christianity isn’t a lack of resources—it’s who gets access to them. As a third-generation missionary kid who grew up across Southeast Asia, Jess watched theological education remain out of reach for the very people doing the most courageous ministry work. So when she inherited Online Bible College after her father’s passing, she rethought the traditional model entirely. Today, OBC serves 70,000+ students across 190+ countries—many in restricted-access regions where faith comes at a cost. OBC doesn’t just teach biblical truths; they ignite revelation that transforms lives and champions people to be the light in whatever sphere God has placed them. An accredited pastor, Board Director of the Australian University College of Divinity, and 2025 Australian Christian Business Award recipient, Jess is reimagining Christian education when we stop treating the margins as a just a missions project and recognise them as the center of God’s work. She lives in Western Sydney with her husband and two kids